Patience Daniel Rowe later Tremethick, 1830-1908

Patience, the daughter of shoemaker William Rowe and his wife Alice nee Daniel, was baptised on 15 March 1830 in Paul Parish Church, Cornwall, a few months before the death of King George IV, the former Prince Regent and builder of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

She was the seventh of their nine children, and spent her childhood in the Street-An-Nowan area of the Cornish fishing village Newlyn.

Foundry Lane, Street-an-Nowan, Newlyn

Her mother died in 1845 when Patience was only 14. By 30 March 1851 she was living with her widowed cordwainer father and her two sisters in Foundry Lane, Street-An-Nowan. Her older sister Grace was a bonnet maker and Patience must have also been good with her fingers as later in life she became a seamstress; younger sister Elizabeth had no profession recorded.

Patience married a fisherman named Thomas Tremethick in January 1853 and the following year they had the first of their ten children, Joseph.

After their marriage they too lived in Foundry Lane. Soon after Joseph they had James and Grace, Thomas and Annie so within 7 years [by the April 1861 census] they had five children. Never a dull moment but a lot of sleepless nights?

Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Chapel with hall, Newlyn, Cornwall

Patience and Thomas’ first four children had been baptised in Paul Church, up on the hill above Newlyn, but Annie was baptised in the Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Chapel just 2 minutes walk up from Foundry Lane in Street-An-Nowan.

On 25 September 1862 their next child, son John, was born and was baptised a Methodist the following month again at Trinity. Albania was born on 19 May 1865 and she too was baptised at Trinity, two months later.

However when Samuel was born in spring 1867 the family chose St Peter’s Church, Newlyn, for his baptism that May.

In December 1869 her father died, he was still living in the Foundry Lane. By April 1871 the family were living a minute away in Chapel Street Road, still in Street-An-Nowan.

Patience and Thomas’ sixth son and ninth child William Rowe Tremethick was born c August 1870 and was baptised that September, again in St Peter’s Church, Newlyn. On 6 March 1872 her last child, daughter Patience, was born in Newlyn but for Patience’s baptism the family returned to the Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Chapel. I wonder why this ‘church-hopping’? Maybe they didn’t like one of the ministers…

Patience Jnr was to be their last child, for in February 1878 Thomas died and was buried on 27 February in Paul Cemetery.

The first of their children to marry was Grace who married James Richards in St Peter’s Church, Newlyn on 8 Sep 1880. James was a Royal Navy Quartermaster who had been born in Newlyn but spent part of his youth on the Isles of Scilly.

Florence Place, Newlyn

By April 1881 Patience had moved to what was technically the next parish (Madron) although the house was actually only 5 minutes walk away. She had six of her children living with her, four of whom were bringing in a wage, and was herself working as a ‘steampstress’. Joe (25) was employed by the Great Western Railway, John (18) was a printer and Albania (15) and Samuel (13) were grocer’s assistants. Annie (20) and William (10), a scholar, were also living at home.

By then Patience’s second child James was working as as a domestic groom at Charleton Rectory, Devon. Oldest daughter Grace was married and living in Devonport, Devon and youngest daughter Patience (aged 9) was away visiting her sister Grace on that night in April 1881. I suspect 23-year old Thomas was a sailor away at sea but haven’t tracked down that record yet.

That summer her daughter Annie married William Crask, a widowed Norfolk-born light-house keeper who was living locally.

In spring 1882 Patience became a grandmother when Grace and James Richards had their first son, Albert Morris Tremethick Richards; sadly the baby only lived about a year, dying in spring 1883.

In April 1883 oldest son Joe married Bessie in Devonport. In January 1884 Patience again became a grandmother when Joe and Bessie had their first child, daughter Ethel, far away in Aston [now Birmingham], Warwickshire, where Joe’s job with GWR had taken him. They also had their son, Percy, there in 1887.

Around May 1885 James married Kate Edwards in Kingsbridge. Between 1890 and 1898 they had five children there: John (1890), Patience (1892) Margaret (1895), William (1896) and Lena (1898).

Tragedy struct the family in November 1885 when Patience’s sixth child John died aged 28; he was buried in Paul Cemetery.

On 16 May 1887 her sailor son Thomas married Mary Badcock in St Mary’s Church, Penzance, with his younger sister Albania as witness. That July Thomas’ oldest sister Grace Richards had her second son, Stanley, still in Devonport. She and James had three further children there: Mabel (c1889), Gladys (1890)and Wilbert J (c1898).

In April 1888 Patience’s daughter Annie Crask died, aged 28, and was buried in Paul Cemetery like her younger brother John. Also that year her eighth child Samuel emigrated to Australia and as far as I’m aware stayed there all his life.

In spring 1889 her youngest daughter and namesake Patience died. She was aged only 17.

In April 1891 Patience was living on her own means in St James Street, Penzance, Albania was living with her and working as an assistant in a boot warehouse. They had taken a milliner called Annie as a lodger.

They were the only two family members left locally. At that time her son William was living in Camberwell, London, and working as a compositor; perhaps he had moved away from Newlyn after the death of his older brother John, also a printer. Joe was living in Warwickshire and James in Kingsbridge, with Grace and also Thomas’ wife Mary in the Plymouth area (Thomas was away on board the Himalaya for that census), and Samuel was in Australia, where it appears he married later that year.

In early 1894 Albania married Seth Lemmon who lived in the next street with his sister and worked as a draper’s assistant.The following year she gave birth to twins, but while Harold survived baby Arthur died at or soon after birth.

In 1900 it appears that Samuel got re-married to a lady called Margaret Lewis in Australia and that they travelled round in south-east Australia, having their children: a daughter and five sons – including an Albania, a Thomas Rowe and an Arthur Harold.

By 1901 Patience and Albania were themselves found in Plymouth, with Seth named as head of the household and 5-year-old Harold with them. Although I can’t check whether Patience was living there or visiting, as she was 76 I suspect she would have been living close to her family as three of her surviving children: Grace and James Richards, Thomas (when not at sea) and Mary Tremethick, and of course Albania and Seth Lemmon, were now living in and around Plymouth. James and Kate were also in Devon (Kingsbridge). At some point in the 1900s Joe and Bessie also moved back to Devon (to Exeter and later Colebrook) – although at the time of the 1901 census they were living in Oxford.

In addition her older sister Grace D Rowe and also many nephews and nieces from the Victor and Rowe branches of the Rowe family were living close by, moved up from Newlyn and Mousehole. Patience was also still in touch with retired lighthouse keeper William Crask, her daughter Annie‘s widower, and he was also listed in Albania and Seth’s household on the night of the 1901 census.

In 1902 Albania and Seth had another son, who they again named Arthur.

There was sad news in 1905 when her coachman son James died and was buried in Kingsbridge, leaving Kate with her three surviving children John, Patience and Lena.

Patience died in summer 1908 in Plymouth, three years after her older sister milliner Grace D Rowe who also died in Plymouth.

Hi. A name I am familiar with (from my interest in railways) is of the Cornish inventor and Railway engineer Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) . So close to your Tremithick I wonder if there could be a connection somewhere.

Hi, thanks for your comments. I confess I don’t know much about that family, and whether Tremethick and Trevithick are variations on the same name or just similar. However when I was trying to trace them it did seem a very unusual name outside that locality.
Best wishes, Lynne